Coal community advocates bash cuts to federal mine reclamation funding and urge restoration in FY25 budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 7, 2024 CONTACT Trey Pollard – trey@pollardcommunications.com – 202-904-9187 READ LETTER HERE COAL COUNTRY – As Congress advances a government funding bill that slashes millions in funding for the agency charged with supporting critical mine reclamation projects and enforcing mine reclamation standards, seventeen local, regional and national organizations released a letter…

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No time to waste averting another coal mine cleanup crisis

Regulators are ignoring a growing crisis unfolding in modern mine reclamation. Coal companies are often failing to complete timely reclamation, and safeguards to ensure mine cleanup are failing. Communities are already seeing a new, more devastating wave of abandoned mines — a problem that will get worse without action.

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Lawsuit filed to save imperiled Appalachian species from coal mining

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 8, 2023 CONTACT Perrin de Jong, Center for Biological Diversity, (828) 595-1862, perrin@biologicaldiversity.org Dan Radmacher, Appalachian Voices, (540) 798-6683, dan@appvoices.org CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Center for Biological Diversity and Appalachian Voices today sued the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing…

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Advocates in coal communities urge Congress to prevent “enormous step backwards” by rejecting harmful appropriations bills

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 24, 2023 Contact: Trey Pollard – trey@pollardcommunications.com – 202-904-9187 VIEW THE LETTERS: House & Senate COAL COUNTRY — Leaders and advocates from across coal country sounded the alarm today, warning Congress that harsh cuts in proposed appropriations legislation would dramatically undercut economic development in coal-impacted communities and threaten efforts to safeguard…

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Statement by Appalachian Voices on House Appropriations Committee proposed cuts to interior and environment agency budgets

workers cleaning up mine site

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee released its proposed FY 2024 budget for the Department of Interior and Environmental Protection Agency. The proposal includes a 10% budget cut to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s operational budget, while also providing a $1 million increase to the budget for the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization Program.

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